How long to complete MCDBA

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As a ballpark, how long would you say it should take to pass the MCDBA. I don't work with SQL etc, have limited knowledge of it and would be self studying

 

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a long time! Though its not impossible learning SQL is a long journey... Some guys have tried it and from what they say it takes long.. Im not sure if you know but MCDBA will teach you TSQL (spelling someone?) which to be honest i know nothing about.. im sure a MCDBA will be here soon.. just be prepared to work hard and have plenty of books!

 

Do you just want to pass the certification, or do you want to learn to be a good database administrator? The two things are not necessarily synonymous.

 

So I believe, I'm not really interested in just brain dumoing an exam, I want to pass with what I know, rather than what I can just memorise if that makes sense

 

OK. How much time each day are you going to set aside for study? How fast do you pick up new programming languages? How many exisiting computers do you have to install SQL Server on? Do you have any existing MCP's? Some MCP's count toward an MCDBA and some don't. How much of a budget do you have for books? As Zimbo says, you'll need a "few"....

 

a question off topic a little... has MS announced when MCDBA will cease to be gained? eg retire the 70-228/229?

 

Probably allocate approx 12 - 15 hours per week to study. Just 1 pc and a laptop at the moment but would buy something else second hand if it helps. Not too bad on programming, can do basic java, SQL looks a little more straightforward (at the basic level anyway) No MCP's

 

no no no SQL is not simple... when you start getting inner joins from anywhere and everywhere its tough! Like freeloader said this cert takes time.. yes there are unethical ways to get it... but then you find your dream job and dont have a clue... if you serious about i think first learn some SQL then attack the MCDBA (or new SQL Server 2005 cert)....

 

At 12 -15 hours a week, even if you pick up t-sql pretty quickly you're going to be at this for a couple of years. It takes, if I remember correctly, at least 4 MCP's to get an MCDBA. If you just want to focus on database adminsitration then you'll need a server cert, a networking cert, and then the sql administration cert and the sql development cert. There are other paths to follow based upon what you want to be. Check out the MS site to see exactly what they are, but you can focus pretty much strictly on development if you want to.

You will definitely need more computers. To set up replication, integration with Active Directory, etc... it takes several machines. I used four as that's all I had available to me, but could have used more.

There are several areas of SQL Server that are not covered in the exams, but yet are used daily by a lot of MS dba's. You'll need books on all of them. Books Online is a pretty good resource, but it's pretty cryptic in places, so other books really come in handy.

I have about a dozen books I used when I studied for my MCDBA. The cover the areas that the exam doesn't cover, t-sql, stored procedures, triggers, etc... security, performance tuning, and a whole lot more. Being a DBA is pretty specific task. I think it requires much more in-depth knowledge to be even half-way good at than the MCSE areas do....

 

Thanks for the advice, think I'll buy a couple of books and see how well (or not) I pick up the basics

 

there is an alternative to having 4 PC's, you could always use VMWare - create virtual machines... okay you will need one hefty machine or you could have 2 'medium' PCs and bridge them together to have your network but we can talk about that when the time comes!

 

Some good points here Freddie!

I did the MOC [Microsoft Official Curriculum] for the SQL exams myself. For additional preparation over 12 months I had a work lab, a home lab, [each of 4 machines] the official study guides and the test software from Tanscender and Self Test Software.

Note that it is a lot harder than a MCSE in my view.

btw - I recently done the Reporting Services course for SQL [2030] using the Reporting Manager and Visual Studio .Net I need this additional information not covered by the exam to do work specific reports.
[one of the course that adds to MCDBA value IMHO]